Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – “Where’s Josh’s Friend?” Review

I got into Crazy Ex-Girlfriend hella late. In fact, I don’t even know what took me so long. After all, I’d loved Rachel Bloom’s previous musical work for a while. Her whole talented escapades and satirical videos are iconic and to see them unleashed in television glory is relentless glee all the time. The songs are on point, the dark humour great, and the situations strangely human. Now Season 2 is unleashed upon us and the excitement is paramount.

For those who haven’t watched Season 1, here is a quick re-cap: Rebecca was working hard at a New York job, making though but it made her blue. One day she was crying a lot, so she decided to move to West Corvina California, brand new pals and new career. Well, it happens to be where Josh lives but that’s not why she’s here…. Basically, she’s a crazy ex-girlfriend….

At the end of Season 1, Josh and Rebecca had hooked up, finally, as he left Valencia at his sister’s wedding. With Rebecca swiftly moving on from Greg, whose left comatose stating his love for her. However, whilst Becks may be with the one she has pined after for so long, she lets slip that she moved to West Corvina to Josh which has scared him completely. Unfortunately for Rebecca, her confident Paula is trying to move on from the craziness whilst Greg has gone AWOL. With Josh using her for sex and living quarters, Rebecca struggles to navigate this circumstances where she is seemingly alone.

The opening episode of Season 2 is not a bad episode but it doesn’t rank highly in the list of superb outings for Rebecca and chorus. The downfalls of the opening episode isn’t the fault of the talent at hand, it’s because there is a clear tonal shift. Why having superb elements, it’s tricky to get your head around a darker new series where everything is seemingly broken. There is an unearthing of everything nefarious with following our heroine down a seedy path that is summed up well with Greg’s Dad who states “You mess up people’s lives and then pass it off as quirky.”

The self-awareness of the show is excellent but it does mean the ground we tread is unfamiliar. I’m not saying this as a critique, quite the opposite, it’s through this brilliance that the show can shoot of into something stellar. I am just saying that you’ll leave feeling as wounded as all our characters because you can no longer brush off Rebecca’s calamity as New Girl quirkiness. And in that kernel, its Love Kernel, lies a strong season that will root inside of you.

This all being said, Where’s Josh’s Friend has defiant moments of bonkers and crazy to add hilarity to the realistic proceedings. In fact, there are several moments where I – quote unquote – lost my shit including a broom replacing a character, the whole song Love Kernels, and Emory’s sweater.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is back with new odds and a new character setting. How it choses to develop after this episode will defy the show forever. But one has hope that, whilst unusual and bleak in opening, the series will develop in a glorious, unbridled way.